


New Tricks

by opalish



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 00:53:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11280330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalish/pseuds/opalish
Summary: Yuuri Katsuki might notlooklike a shameless harbinger of chaos, but nothing Yakov's seen in the last year is enough to make him rethink his first impression.





	New Tricks

Yakov knows about Katsuki before the Sochi Finals, of course. He's Vitya's coach, and as untouchable as  _the_ Victor Nikiforov seems, it's still Yakov's job to know about his skaters' fellow competitors. Yuuri Katsuki, the hope of Japan, the late bloomer—stunning step sequences, beautiful spins, more ambitious than consistent with his quads, and capable of a magnificent triple axel.

If he skates very, very well, Yakov supposes, he could conceivably make the podium. Katsuki's not dangerous to Vitya, not as things stand, but he's fared well enough against Georgi over the past few years. He has the potential to be a true champion, a regular medalist on the international scene, if he ever figures out how to keep himself together.

For a short while, Yakov actually thinks he might take bronze. But something changes in Katsuki between his respectable SP and his disaster of an FS. He's defeated before he even steps out onto the ice, and his performance is by far the worst Yakov's ever seen from him.

Yakov doesn't give it much thought, honestly, and hasn't formed an opinion on the man beyond what he's gleaned from his skating. It's a pity Katsuki crumbled so thoroughly, but it happens. He'll either recover or he won't.

Then, the banquet _._

 

* * *

 

Vitya is stubborn, infuriating, flippant, and flighty, it's true. He is also talented, driven, and clever.

But he is, above all else, a professional. His entire life is given over to skating—to doing whatever it takes to keep his career going, to win and then win again. He trains harder than any other skater Yakov's ever known; he puts together his own choreography, decides his own music, makes time for his fans, cultivates his image with the media, embodies his legend to his peers, and is unfailingly charming with his sponsors.

In short, he knows better than to misbehave at a banquet.

Yakov's gone from the room for an hour— _one hour_ —to argue with Lilia over the phone.

When he returns, the banquet hall looks like its been hit by a tornado—a _champagne_ tornado, judging by the smell and the squelch of the carpet underfoot. Half the skaters and all of the sponsors still present are practically pressed to the walls, shell-shocked and horrified.

And Yakov's skaters are right in the middle of the mess, having the time of their lives.

Yuri is shaking with rage, hair a mess and clothes rumpled, but Yakov knows the boy well enough to know he's certainly enjoying himself more than he was earlier. Vitya's swaying in place, half-dancing with and half-carrying an impressively wasted Yuuri Katsuki, looking positively smitten as Katsuki mumbles to him in a jumbled confusion of Japanese and English. And Mila's just treating the spectacle like her own personal photo shoot, circling her rinkmates and getting everything on film from as many angles as she can manage.

Apparently, one hour is long enough for two top skaters to strip naked and pole-dance, for the Junior Grand Prix winner to agree to—and lose—a breakdancing competition, and for Victor Nikiforov to fall head over heels in love with a drunk-out-of-his-mind competitor.

_One hour._

 

* * *

 

It gets worse from there.

 

* * *

 

Yakov doesn't blame Katsuki for Vitya's decision to drop everything and take off for Japan, leaving Yakov to handle the press and his sponsors and the FFKK. Victor Nikiforov only ever does what he wants, and only ever on his own terms.

But it's undeniable that Katsuki has somehow sparked something in Vitya.  Something new, Yakov thinks, but he has a nagging feeling that's not quite right.  Something new, or perhaps something absent so long Yakov's forgotten the look of it.

Vitya calls it inspiration; Mila calls it infatuation; the rest of the world calls it insanity. Yakov's open to the possibility that it's a mix of all three.

 

* * *

 

Yuri takes off after Vitya and returns a changed man. Boy. Teenager? Skater.

Suddenly, he's the child Yakov remembers from not so very long ago, the boy who trained harder than anyone and never once complained. Yuri's finally becoming the skater he could've been throughout his time as a Junior, if he hadn't outstripped his competition so quickly and completely.

Perhaps it's a minor thing, the difference between wanting to win and not wanting to lose. But as Yakov watches Yuri improve and improve and _improve_ , he thinks, a bit reluctantly, that he might be starting to understand why Vitya chose to leave.

 

* * *

 

In China, Yakov finds himself thinking of Vitya as a fellow coach. A new coach, an inexperienced one fumbling his way through the basics, a little too prone to _throwing himself at his skater and kissing him on the ice_ —but still.

A coach.

Victor isn't playing at this. He's taking Katsuki's skating as seriously as he ever took his own.

Yakov's torn between grudging approval and the sudden realization that this might actually be it for Victor. This might be what Victor decides on, even after the season's over.

He might never skate for Russia again.

 

* * *

 

Vitya goes back to Japan. His dog is sick, and he leaves his skater in Yakov's care so he can go to Makkachin.

It's...not the choice Yakov would've made in his position. But for the first time, the thought that Vitya might truly be done, might truly be gone, almost sits well with him.

He's known Vitya for a very, very long time, and as a coach it's always been his job to push Vitya's career forward, to make his skating his top priority.

But Vitya loves that dog. He always has.

A year ago, Vitya might not have gone. He might've waited, convinced himself to skate, convinced himself that the audience came first. And Yakov wouldn't have disagreed. A dog is a dog, but a legend...

Katsuki tells him to go. Pushes him to leave, in spite of everything.

Vitya's different now, because of Katsuki. Yakov's not entirely sure how to describe it, but that doesn't make it any less clear to him: something's changed, something more than just Vitya's occupation. And that change—it's a good one.  Perhaps not for Russia, or for Yakov, or for the Living Legend, or even for figure skating as a sport.  But for the man beneath it all, for Vitya, it's _good_.

 

* * *

 

If anything ever happens to Yuri's cat while they're gone, Yakov decides as the Japanese Yuuri finally stops hugging him, he'll book the boy a seat on the next flight back to St Petersburg.  It'll be Yuri's choice if he's on it, but Yakov won't stand in his way.  Yakov thinks he might not even let Yuri stand in his own way.  No one names a cat something like Puma Tiger Scorpion if they don't care a great deal.

He'll never agree that there's more to life than skating, but he's willing to concede that there is, perhaps, more to life than competing.

 

* * *

 

Yuuri Katsuki, Yakov thinks dourly as Vitya explains his inane, insane plan to make a complete comeback in a matter of days _and also_ , by the way, continue coaching his own skater at the same time, is a menace.  He might not _look_ like a shameless harbinger of chaos, but nothing Yakov's seen in the last year is enough to make him rethink that first impression.

Still, he supposes, that might not be such a terrible thing.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about Yakov.


End file.
